Refine
Has Fulltext
- no (3)
Year of publication
- 2013 (3) (remove)
Language
- English (3)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (3)
Keywords
- charge transfer (1)
- click chemistry (1)
- crown compounds (1)
- electron transfer (1)
- fluorescence (1)
- fluorescent probes (1)
- gels (1)
- hydrophobic mismatch (1)
- membranes (1)
- metal ions (1)
Institute
Molecular rods consisting of a hydrophobic backbone and terminally varying functional groups have been synthesized for applications for the functionalization of membranes. In the present study, we employ a spin-labeled analogue of a recently described new class of molecular rods to characterize their dynamic interactions with membranes. By using the different approaches of ESR and NMR spectroscopy, we show that the spin moiety of the membrane-embedded spin-labeled rod is localized in the upper chain/glycerol region of membranes of different compositions. The rod is embedded within the membrane in a tilted orientation to adjust for the varying hydrophobic thicknesses of these bilayers. This orientation does not perturb the membrane structure. The water solubility of the rod is increased significantly in the presence of certain cyclodextrins. These cyclodextrins also allow the rods to be extracted from the membrane and incorporated into preformed membranes. The latter will improve the future applications of these rods in cellular systems as stable membrane-associated anchors for the functionalization of membrane surfaces.
Herein, we report the synthesis of two phenylaza-[18]crown-6 lariat ethers with a coumarin fluorophore (1 and 2) and we reveal that compound 1 is an excellent probe for K+ ions under simulated physiological conditions. The presence of a 2-methoxyethoxy lariat group at the ortho position of the anilino moiety is crucial to the substantially increased stability of compounds 1 and 2 over their lariat-free phenylaza-[18] crown-6 ether analogues. Probe 1 shows a high K+/Na+ selectivity and a 2.5-fold fluorescence enhancement was observed in the presence of 100 mm K+ ions. A fluorescent membrane sensor, which was prepared by incorporating probe 1 into a hydrogel, showed a fully reversible response, a response time of 150 s, and a signal change of 7.8% per 1 mm K+ within the range 1-10 mm K+. The membrane was easily fabricated (only a single sensing layer on a solid polyester support), yet no leaching was observed. Moreover, compound 1 rapidly permeated into cells, was cytocompatible, and was suitable for the fluorescent imaging of K+ ions on both the extracellular and intracellular levels.
In a systematic approach we synthesized a new series of fluorescent probes incorporating donoracceptor (D-A) substituted 1,2,3-triazoles as conjugative -linkers between the alkali metal ion receptor N-phenylaza-[18]crown-6 and different fluorophoric groups with different electron-acceptor properties (4-naphthalimide, meso-phenyl-BODIPY and 9-anthracene) and investigated their performance in organic and aqueous environments (physiological conditions). In the charge-transfer (CT) type probes 1, 2 and 7, the fluorescence is almost completely quenched by intramolecular CT (ICT) processes involving charge-separated states. In the presence of Na+ and K+ ICT is interrupted, which resulted in a lighting-up of the fluorescence in acetonitrile. Among the investigated fluoroionophores, compound 7, which contains a 9-anthracenyl moiety as the electron-accepting fluorophore, is the only probe which retains light-up features in water and works as a highly K+/Na+-selective probe under simulated physiological conditions. Virtually decoupled BODIPY-based 6 and photoinduced electron transfer (PET) type probes 35, where the 10-substituted anthracen-9-yl fluorophores are connected to the 1,2,3-triazole through a methylene spacer, show strong ion-induced fluorescence enhancement in acetonitrile, but not under physiological conditions. Electrochemical studies and theoretical calculations were used to assess and support the underlying mechanisms for the new ICT and PET 1,2,3-triazole fluoroionophores.